How About a Weekend Brunch?

Well, its the weekend again. You want to know one of my favorite parts about the weekend? It's the lazy mornings. And do you want to know what goes well with lazy mornings? Brunch.

Here is a beautiful brunch recipe. An Oven Pancake, or a German Pancake or a Dutch Baby- whatever you call it, it's yummy! This one has apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar. And its easier than pancakes because you don't have to stand over the stove or griddle while everyone else is enjoying their breakfast.

So I suggest that you try this either Saturday or Sunday or tomorrow if you are like me and your weekends start on Fridays.

Apple Oven Pancake

Ingredients:

2 apples (preferably tart)- peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup gluten-free self rising baking mix

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

3/4 cup rice milk

3 tablespoons butter

Quick Note: You can also make your own baking mix by adding flour, xanthum gum, and baking powder

Before you begin, set the oven to 425 degrees F.

Now, the first step is peeling and slicing up the apples. Once they are all sliced up mix them with the cinnamon and brown sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Toss it all around until all of the apples are well coated.

Next, take the dish you are going to prep it in (either a medium-small baking dish or a pie plate or a cast-iron skillet) and put 2 tablespoons of butter in it. Now place the dish in the oven while the oven continues to preheat so that the butter melts.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and salt, then add in the eggs, milk, and remaining butter.

Take the dish out of the oven (making sure the butter is completely melted) and swirl it around so that the butter is coating the entire bottom of the pan.

Now put the apple and cinnamon sugar mixture into the dish and spread it out evenly. Pour the batter over top and place back into the oven.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes until the pancake is puffed up and golden.

Straight Outta the Oven

Here's the most difficult part- wait to cool a bit before serving. But then comes the best part- slice it up and serve it with syrup, or more fruit, or powdered sugar- pick your poison. This serves about 4 people if you serve it alongside some fresh fruit or some other breakfast side.

They say the color red makes you hungry. Is it working?

Happy Weekend!!! And feel free to share what your cooking this weekend in the comment section.

As for me... I'm heading to Wales tomorrow to explore one of my many homelands (I think ) :)

In Case You're Ever in the UK

So, before I left I heard that the UK was more progressive when it comes to gluten free options, so I was excited about that but still nervous. I mean, on top of gluten-free I also have to deal with being dairy-free which oftentimes proves to be more difficult, or at least as difficult. Plus, what if these foods were really expensive or they were only at specialty foods out in the suburbs that I couldn't get to? So much to think about.

Well I have already found 2 grocery stores with great gluten free options, Sainsbury and Planet Organic. So, I know that most, if not all, of my readers are back in the US and can't visit either of these stores, but if you ever visit London this might be useful. And I just want to talk about it, hehe :)

A couple highlights from Sainsbury:

-the free from brand which carries pretty much everything. From sauces to cook with, to snacks, to dessert, to baking ingredients

-genius bread which is the best DF/CF bread I have ever had. It comes in two flavors as well: white and brown.

Sainsbury is a big name grocery store with shops on like every corner of the city. Some of them are large and some are small so their amount of gluten/dairy-free options varies but in the bigger ones they have an entire section full of options and everything I've tried from actually tastes good. They have the basics like rice milk, GF flour, rice pasta, etc, but they also have some British classics like mincemeat pies and sticky toffee pudding.

Photo Source: Sainsbury's Website

And now on to my saving grace of London- Planet Organic- which happens to be right on campus. Not only do they have all of the groceries I need, but they also have a prepared food section that clearly labels what is in and what is not in all of the food, including gluten and dairy free baked goods that are incredible. Its a perfect breakfast stop on the way to class: a muffin and a soy latte. Oh how I much I have missed that basically nutrient-empty breakfast. Another good thing about Planet Organic is that it offers a ton of vegan options for those of you who are so inclined. It can be a tad expensive but everything here is expensive so you learn to live with it.

For those of you who never make it to London, sorry for wasting your time with this post, but for those of you who do come, don't worry because you WILL have something to eat.

Vegan Basil Pesto

I think its time to introduce you to my favorite little kitchen helper... my Magic Bullet. I'm willing to bet that most of you have seen the infomercials and I'm also willing to bet that at least a couple of you were tempted to buy it. It may not be the miracle that the infomercial portrays it to be, but its always been a big help to me. I mean, I use it to grind my coffee, make smoothies, and as a make shift food processor. Its cheap too. I can't really afford a nice food processor and I don't really have a lot of room for a ton of different appliances, so a magic bullet is convenient for us college-age, tight-budgeted, or small-kitchened cooks. Another thing I love about my personal magic bullet... it was free. I won it at my high-school senior picnic and its still going strong about 3 years later.

Here he is! And notice the outlet converter... yes, I packed my magic bullet and carried it all the way to London.

This is my latest magic bullet creation: Vegan Basil Pesto. It is really good with pasta, or spread on a sandwich, or for anything really.

If you don't have a magic bullet, you can use a food processor obviously. And all though I hate to be disloyal to my little helper, a food processor is probably better because you can better control the consistency and how much you blend everything.

Vegan Basil Pesto

Ingredients

2 cups packed basil leaves

1/4 cup pine nuts

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

juice of 1 whole lemon

4 cloves garlic, chopped

3 tablespoons miso paste

1/2 teaspoon salt

The cast of characters

*if you can't find miso paste or don't want to use it you don't have to, but it adds the flavor that the cheese would have given it in a non-vegan pesto

And once you have all of the ingredients out, it's super easy to prepare. You simply add all of the ingredients into your magic bullet/food processor and blend until its a creamy consistency.

Here's the sauce, all jarred and ready to go. That's one green sauce.

Another note about pesto- the basil can brown when heated so I would add the sauce after everything is cooked and try not to heat it too much. The taste isn't affected but a brownish-greenish sauce just isn't pretty.

pesto tossed with some pasta and topped with dairy-free parmesan and pine nuts